Carol Naylor's REVIEW it...

Sun-warmed in this late season's grace under the autumn's gentlest sky we walked, and froze half-through a pace. The great black snake went reeling by. Head-down, tongue flickering on the trail he quested through the parting grass; sun glazed his curves of diamond scale, and we lost breath to watch him pass. What track he followed, what small food fled living from his fierce intent, we scarecly thought; still as we stood our eyes went with him as he went. Cold, dark and splendid he was gone into the grass that hid his prey. We took a deeper breath of day, looked at each other, and went on. In Australia there are 140 species of land snakes, some equipped with venom more toxic than any other snakes in the world. Bites, however, are quite rare. Fatalities are low: between 4-6 deaths a year. It is interesting to note that 21 out of 25 of the world's most venomous snakes live in Australia. The fierce snake is the inland taipan which is the most poison...

Here you'll find 11 varied but intense stories about emotional struggles of ordinary people trying to get to grips with life. For some unfortunates, the adjustment is too great and tragedy is inevitable, something very characteristic of Hill's writing as many of you will already know. A Bit of Singing and Dancing is less dramatic and not quite so tragic. I can stay out here just as long as I like, I can do anything I choose, anything at all, for now I am answerable only to myself. Esme is still coming to terms with her mother's death and her new-found freedom. She is over 50 years of age and has reluctantly been forced into caring for her forthright and domineering bedridden mother for 11 years prior to her death. She had been half-alive satisfying her mother's needs and repressing her own needs and desires. Her mother's death had given her a new lease of life, an unexpected freedom which also attracted fear and bewilderment to someone who had been so sheltered...